Vengence in Violet
by EverReader
Summary: MY non-canon, had to do it, time to laugh a little Roswell story. Keeping Tess, Keeping Alex. Canday FanAddict all the way.
1. Chapter 1

Author's Notes

Okay, so this is my just-for-fun piece. I love canon, but come on. Sometimes enough is just enough. I have the barest outline of this story, I won't update it the way I will the other, and I'm not gonna be so obsessive about the details. I like Tess, I AM NOT kill Alex, and by the time this story is done, I want everyone to respect those little candy coated chocolates just a little bit more.

Enjoy.

Oh, and blah blah blah, not my story, not my characters, not making money.

And the "muchness " line (which I love, FYI, is from the newest Alice in Wonderland.)

"Vengence in Violet" (The Remix)

Prom had really gotten her hopes up. After all, what could be sweeter, more loving than hiring a dancing instructor so you could take your girlfriend to her prom? Granted, he had broken up with her the week before, but, all in all, for space boy, it hadn't been too bad. And using the last of his hush money from the Dupree's to arrange for her to sing on stage at Vegas had to fall on the list of top ten most romantic gestures ever. Along with letting Raging Ray kick his ass so her mom's business wouldn't lose half its annual revenue. And she still kept that damned napkin holder on the kitchen table. And just two days ago she had turned the whole house upside down looking for one of the pearl earrings he had given her (it was in her jewelry box. Damn her mother's unpredictable cleaning sprees).

But now there was only one month a school left before summer vacation. Summer vacation which should mean hanging out, road trips, parties, dancing and practically unlimited Michael and Maria time, right?

Not in this universe.

Maria strode into Michaels apartment, not even bothering to keep the screen door from slamming. Michael was at his kitchen counter, facing away from her, a piece of fried chicken halfway to his mouth. When the door slammed, he jumped. She could see his shoulders tensing up. Good, she thought.

Max was standing facing the door, and he had wisely chosen to go into bear-attack survival mode. No sudden movements, eye contact or loud noises. He wasn't above dropping down to the ground and playing dead if necessary. Liz was a sweet, forgiving, understanding kind of girl. Maria wasn't Liz.

She came around the corner, slapping both hands on the counter before leaning down to be eye level with Michael. The slightly panicked look on his face would have been amusing had she been in the mood to be amused.

She wasn't.

"Where were you?" She cried.

"Right here" he said back. "Where was I supposed to be?" Since she was questioning him directly, he couldn't not make any noise, but he made sure to face her calmly, and move only as much as absolutely necessary.

"At school. At lunch. WITH ME!" she cried back.

"Today's Saturday" Ok, now he was confused.

"No! Today's Friday! Michael, where are you?" She couldn't believe this.

"Right here. Wait, where's Saturday?"

"Oh my god." She stood up straight. "Well, what was it? Were you at least, like, saving the world from some kind of alien invasion?"

Michael looked at her "Would that stop you from kicking my ass?" He couldn't keep the hope from his voice.

"Michael!"

"I was right here, ok, Maria. I'm right here!"

"Oh" she said. "Okay" .

Michael swallowed and braced himself.

"So" she took a deep breath. She knew she was gonna need it. "Were you…. sleeping? Or working? Or are you going to bed? Or just getting up? Or going to school? Or chasing a UFO sighting? Or digging up alien objects? Burying alien objects?". She paused, pulled in another breath. "Cause wherever you are? It's not with me." For a moment she just looked at him, and then turned to walk out of the door.

"Maria!" Michael cried. "All of this... The school, the jobs, the ... other stuff, it's not like it's optional. It's important shit, okay?"

"So, what? Your plans with me are optional?" Again, she turned to walk out of the door.

"What exactly do you want from me?" he cried, agitated.

"I want...a moment of your time. No" she corrected, "I want several moments of your time, preferably strung together, several times a week." She sighed. "For instance, I want tomorrow night to be fun. Really fun. I've been practicing all week."

"For date night?" he asked, confused.

"Michael, remember? I'm singing in the second set at the Silver Saucer" she said, naming one of the local bars. She didn't like the look on his face. Not one bit.

"Yeah…about that. See... Max heard something at the UFO center the other day, about some ruins about two hours away that have these really weird paintings on them. He wants to compare them to the destiny book. And we can't exactly do that during normal business hours."

"You're going to miss my show? Everyone is gonna miss my show?" She cried.

"No, no. See its aliens only, so Kyle, Alex and Liz can all still be there, to cheer you on!" Just not my boyfriend, she thought. Then she narrowed her eyes.

"And just why exactly is it VIP-aliens only? Suddenly humans aren't good company? Not enough for you all?" This better not be more of that destiny crap, she thought. It's not like they were so good at it the first time around, anyway. Not only did they lose the war, but, oh yeah, they all DIED in the process.

"We've been over all this before, Maria. You guys don't have any powers, you can't protect yourself. It's too dangerous." He watched her warily.

"We always used to be a team. Max and Liz too! And Alex and Isabel. Why is it suddenly too dangerous now? It wasn't last year."

Last year no crazy gandarium-filled archaeologist had come after you with a gun. Michael knew better than to say it aloud though. She narrowed her eyes.

"Do the others know about this?" She asked. Michael swallowed and nodded.

"Am I the last to know?" Michael nodded again. She seriously creeped him out when her voice got low like that.

"And just how much notice did everyone else get, Mickey G?" At that point Max made a swift escape. A good king knew the value of well-timed retreat.

"Thhhdaysms" Michael muttered.

"What?"

He swallowed. "Three days. I meant to tell you, but I forgot."

"Goodbye Michael".

"No, no! Wait, stop, dammit Maria, come back here, just chill, okay".

He attempted to pull her into her lap, but she wasn't having any of it. She just looked at him.

Agitated, he ran his hand through his hair. "Look, we probably won't have to be out all night. I don't see why I can't make your show."

For a moment he thought she would stay pissed, but then her shoulders sagged a little. Smiling crookedly, she said-

"I can ask them to make it the last set, instead of the second" she offered.

"Deal. I'll be there."

"Promise?"

"I promise."

"Really promise, Michael?"

"I'll be there".

He wasn't there. Neither was Max, Tess or Isabel.

She watched all night. The table Liz, Alex and Kyle had got was right up front. But the chairs they had saved for the others remained empty.

After her set she walked up to the others. She was so mad she had passed the furious tears stage. She was in a whole new world of mad.

As the others congratulated her, she could tell they were uncomfortable with the empty spaces that should have been filled by their Czech friends.

After the others had finished talking, they all just looked at each.

"The crashdown." Maria stated simply. The other three simply nodded.

An hour later they had all gathered in the darkened diner. By unspoken consent they had all come in various states of pajamas.

"Slumber parties with girls." Kyle muttered. "Not as fun as I imagined".

"Shut up Valenti". Maria said without raising her head from where she was laying on top of the counter, long wavy hair streaming off the edge.

"That can't be hygienic." he replied as he hopped up to sit on the table across from where Liz and Alex were sitting of stools, twirling each other in circles.

After a few minutes of relative silence Alex asked "So Maria, why the emergency meeting at" he checked his watch, "Midnight?"

She sat up abruptly. "Not a meeting people. This is officially a council of war"

Liz scrunched up her nose. "Just who exactly, are we declaring war on, Maria"

"The Czechs, if I had to guess." Alex said, studying Maria's face.

"Sorry guys, but their toys are way better, no offence. Buddha say-No fight for losing side" Kyle replied immediately.

"Shut up Kyle" this time both Alex and Liz were in unison.

"Maria" Liz started, "I know you're pissed at Michael, and you should be. It was a really crappy thing. He deserves to be dumped. But he really does love you." A pause. " I think."

"I know." Maria said.

"Then…why the declaration of war?" Alex asked.

"Because it isn't enough. And it isn't just Michael." She said. Her very calmness demanded her friend's attention. It was like being in the eye of a very large, most likely deadly hurricane.

"Whoa, whoa…Max and I are FINE!" Liz stated.

"So are me and Isabel" Alex said.

"Umm...Yeah. No interspecies dating going on here." Kyle said.

Maria looked at them for a moment. "Then why are they out there, and we are all here?" She said quietly.

"Because we wanted to be there for your show." Liz.

"Because we wanted to support you." Alex.

"Because they had some freaky alien thing to do." Kyle.

"Because they had some IMPORTANT alien thing to do." Liz corrected.

"Because we don't have powers." Alex

"Because not having powers makes us liabilities." Liz said quietly.

"Because they gotta find out what the book says." Alex added

"Because they need to know how to make the granolith work." Liz said, very quietly.

"Because one day, they're gonna use it to go home". She almost looked near tears. Alex took her hand.

"Because…" Maria took a breath, and started listing on her fingers. "They don't think we can keep up with them, that not having power makes us weak, because they know, no matter what, we'll wait until they want us. Or need our cars. Because they think they know everything about us, what we'll do, how we'll react, just how far they can push our love, loyalty and friendship." She looked sadly at the others.

"Because we're known factors, and the unknown is always way more exciting." Maria and the others just sat there for a few moments.

"We are totally unappreciated." Kyle said.

"We are totally underestimated." Alex replied.

"We're not in healthy relationships." Liz agreed.

"I'm not in any relationship, dammit." Kyle muttered.

Liz looked at Maria. "They don't take us along anymore because they don't want to put us in danger."

"Yeah. So they cut us out of all the x-files portions of their lives. Unfortunately, that's like, eighty percent" Maria replied.

"It's for our own safety. They just don't want to see us get hurt. Maybe that's just the cost of being in a relationship with someone who's….different." Liz shrugged.

"Or of giving one your room" Kyle added.

"But I don't know that any of us _are_ in relationships with them. Think about it, our whole lives revolve around them, around that twenty percent of our lives we can share with them, and then they can't even be bothered to show up for that." Maria was fighting back the tears finally.

The boys looked away, while Liz held Maria. Finally Maria calmed down enough to say "And what about when they decide that even twenty percent is too dangerous for us like spaceboy did last summer? What then?"

"That won't happen Maria." Alex said. "Michael was beyond miserable without you."

"It could, though" Maria said. "If Michael decides it's the right thing to do, he will."

She took a deep breath. "And even that's the best case scenario, 'cause one day, they'll get in a spaceship, and they'll leave, and we will have nothing, _nothing _left." Tears were still falling silently down her cheeks, but she refused to give into them anymore.

"So, what, you think we should dump them _en masse_ to avoid getting hurt more?" Alex asked.

"I couldn't if I wanted to" Liz said.

"Me either." Alex and Maria said in unison.

"Then what do you want to do?" Kyle asked.

"We need to re-take our lives, people. Our relationships. We need to makes plans." Maria said.

Immediately, Liz brightened. Liz loved plans.

"Plans for what?" Alex said..

"That depends on what we want out of this", Maria said. "But I think we need to start by admitting, each of us, just what this is doing to us. We need to admit it, face it. We may as well be addicts at aliens anonymous."

She took a deep breath. "I'll start. I love Michael more than anything in the world. And I've pushed, and pulled, and prayed, and waited, and dealt. But it's always been on his terms." She paused. "And I'm so pissed that he didn't show up tonight. Or the time before that, or the time before that."

She looked at Alex. He sighed. "Isabel treats me like her favorite pet, or her own personal mascot. I'm who she's with until a new, shiny toy catches her eye." He paused. "And yeah. I'm pissed."

He looked at Kyle. After a pause, Kyle said "I'm not even dating one, and I'm pissed. They cost me my dad's job, my bedroom, hell, my peace of mind. And I'm not even good enough to play on their team."

Finally they all turned to look at Liz. Her head was hanging down. "I'm mad" she said, so quietly they all had to lean in to hear her. She looked up. "I love Max. But I'm mad, and scared, and sad. And I want to be a part of his life, and he won't let me. And Maria's right, everything else in our lives have gone to the wayside for them, but when it comes down to it, it's always them over there, and us over here."

"So, do we just let them go?" Alex asked.

"No." Maria replied. "But we need to start dealing with them on our terms."

"So, we really are, like alien addicts anonymous" Liz joked.

"What are our goals?" Kyle asked.

"Revenge." Maria said immediately. "He's gonna wish he'd prioritized differently. It's not fun to be out of the know."

"Respect." Alex said. "I'm not gonna be anyone's backup anymore".

"A girl friend." Kyle said. The other three turned to look at him. "What, what? I want some of my normal back. This time last year I had three dates to choose from. This time all I'm asking for is one!"

"O-k-a-y. So, Kyle wants his mojo back. I can respect that." Then she cracked up, which cracked Alex up, and five minutes later they finally calmed down enough (well, okay, Kyle WAS still fuming, but, whatever) to look at Liz.

"Liz, what do you want?" Maria said it softly. She needed Liz in on this, needed it bad. Liz needed it bad.

"I don't know what I want." Liz said. "I guess, I guess what I really want is options."

Stunned silence met her words.

"NOW you wanna date guys other than Evans!" Kyle cried indignantly.

"No, no, of course not, that isn't what I meant. I'm just tired of feeling like a half. Half of a couple that half of the time is nowhere near the other half!"

"Wow." Was all Kyle said.

Maria nodded. "And Liz wants her muchness back. Doable people, very doable."


	2. Chapter 2

Vengeance In Violet: Chapter Two- Plan of attack

Disclaimer: Still not mine, still broke, still a candy fanatic. Really disappointed I didn't get Michael Guerin for Mother's day. Oh well….

At the Crash Down….

They talked for nearly another hour. The long and short of it, however, was that they were all angry.

The dilemma was what to do about.

"Okay people, okay!" Maria said. "I've lost enough sleep over spaceboy this week, I'm on sleep deprivation overtime!." She paused, thinking a moment.

"We can't just focus on revenge." Liz jumped in. "It can't be like that."

Alex nodded. "Besides, if they catch on to us….."

Kyle actually paled. "You guys got it easy. I _live_ with Tess." The look in his eyes was similar to the one Max had worn yesterday in Michael's apartment. Two parts panic and one part absolute terror. Wasn't it bad enough that she had painted his bedroom _lavender? _He must be working through some very complex karma….

"No, Liz is right. Revenge is definitely a factor though. Okay, from what I can tell, we have three goals." Maria said, walking around to the other end of the counter to face the other three. She started ticking off on her fingers, beginning to pace in front of the other three, and their heads following her course like a one woman ping-pong game.

"Firstly, Revenge. But not the mean-soul-breaking kind. Just the learn-your-lesson-you-shoulda-known-better-kind." Her eyes had lit up with a kind of manic glee. Kyle found himself wishing for a vial of cedar oil.

"Secondly, we need to recapture their interest. Show them that they are not the only ones who can keep secrets, have meetings, projects, save the world, whatever. We need to show them what it's like to be on the outside, to wonder and feel left out. This is vital people. Let's face it, the four of them were literally born into the secret keepers society. We need to give them an opportunity to walk in our shoes, so to speak."

"Equal opportunity revenge?" said Alex, grinning.

"But just how exactly do we do that?" Liz argued. "It's not just like we can just wake up tomorrow and have some deep dark secret we're keeping from them. Uuuhhh…right?" She asked, looking around.

"No." Maria said, "it will have to be Monday morning at the earliest…" Maria trailed off, lost in thought as the other three exchanged confused glances.

"Earth to Maria!" Kyle said helpfully.

Maria rolled her eyes. "Look, part of all of our goals is to re-become whole people."

Her words were met with two blank looks (Kyle and Alex ), while Liz simply scrunched up her nose and said-

"I don't think re-become is a word, Maria."

Maria rolled her eyes again. "And Czechoslovakia isn't a county, but we're still going to war with it!.Okay, what I mean is, we all used to have lives, people, hobbies, interests, plans that didn't involve unidentified flying objects. We need to get back to that! We each need to come up with one plan, idea, goal, event, whatever, that we can work towards." She finished.

"What good is that gonna do?" Kyle asked.

"Well" Maria started, "Best case scenario, it gives us something we can work on during alien off-time, that we can look forward to, and feel good about."

Liz was nodding. "And we don't have to talk about it with the others, so it COULD be a sorta secret…"

"Not could, will be. And even if what each of us picks is the lamest thing ever, we are gonna protect it like it's the secret of immortality."

"It'll never work." Alex argued. "They probably won't even notice…"

Maria raised her brows. "Oh, no? So tomorrow morning, Michael gonna's come slinking in, and what am I gonna do?"

"Cry?" Alex offered.

Liz snorted, completely un-ladylike-"uh-uh, yell-a lot." She paused "And then you'll probably throw something… AT him, off course…."

"I'm going with severe bodily harm." Kyle said. "In fact, can we just bring out the first aid kit now and leave it on the table for tomorrow morning?" He expected Maria to get huffy over their teasing remarks, but to his surprise, she was smiling. And it seriously creeped him out.

Maria nodded. "Because that's what I've always done. I know it, you know it, Everyone across America knows it. And Michael knows it, too. So what do you think he'll do if tomorrow morning he comes in, and I…" She finished detailing her plan of action for tomorrow morning.

The other three's eyes got wide. They stared at Maria for so long she started to fidget and feel self-conscious. "Well, say SOMETHING'" She finally said.

"Can you manage that?" Liz asked seriously.

"Holy crap…" was all Alex managed, completely lost in the possibilities.

Kyle had started laughing so hard he nearly fell of his stool. 'He's….gonna…think…died….in the night…..or something worse…abduction…alien deathcon four…." The rest was pretty much unintelligible, but they got his point. Maria wasn't known as Hurricane Deluca for nothing. And she'd only been seven when she earned the name. People normally forgot natural disasters after a while, but Maria….

Maria was nodding. "Oh, I can manage it alright. Space boy's gonna think I've been replaced by a pea-pod person. Now just imagine if we were all doing, not just for one day, or two…." She trailed off.

"For how long?" Liz questioned.

Maria thought a moment. "Our goals should wrap up by the end of the summer. We can all pick new ones then if we have too." She decided.

'That's an awful long time." Alex pointed out.

Maria shrugged. "Re-training takes awhile. This won't work if we can't commit to it. But the pay-out…."She drifted off. She'd made the best pitch she could; the others would have to decide for themselves now.

"What's the worst case scenario?" Alex asked suddenly in a quiet voice.

Huh?" Liz and Kyle said in unison.

"Maria said, best case scenario, it will give us something focus on so the the pod squad can get a taste of being on the outside, What's the worst case scenario?"

Maria looked at him for a long moment. She didn't really want to say it out loud. Liz wouldn't make her. Neither would Kyle. But something in Alex would fight for the truth of something no matter what. Even if it left him bleeding and gasping, he would never choose to dance around something hurtful. He would face it. She swallowed.

"Worst case scenario is that, when they leave, because we all know they will eventually, they are no longer the absolute center of our universe. We need to have goals and friends and plans again or we will be devastated. We have to save our own lives."

Silence. Maria studied her hands, biting her lip. She meant it. She had to do something. She couldn't just walk away from Michael. That would be like waking up tomorrow and deciding she didn't feel like breathing oxygen anymore. Fat Chance. She would fight for Michael, yes, until the bloody end if that was what it took, but she had to start fighting for herself, too.

She was out of options.

"I'm in." Liz said suddenly, surprising Maria. She had thought Liz would be the hardest to sell on the idea.

"I mean" Liz continued. "In a way, it's for their own good, right? I'm out of ideas to fix me and Max. Maybe this will even the playing field. But we need to lay some ground rules. Firstly, all this gets put on hold anytime there is REAL Czech business,…"

"But only if it's serious. No more "Spend seven hours on the roof spying on the new janitor cause he had red hair and I once had a dream about a red-haired guy crap. Only TRUE emergencies." Maria qualified.

The others nodded.

Alex said "And I think our goals need some guidelines too. Firstly, we should all pick out one, but all four of us should work on all four goals, so it emphasizes that we are all in it together, you know, emphasize that it really is an "I know an alien club" event. And they should be things we really want to do, but that are also a little out of character for us, otherwise the others will guess them and it will be moot point. Like, for instance, Maria, you and I couldn't do "Battle of the Bands", you know?"

"Pipe dreams…" Kyle said musingly. "Okay, I'm in."

"Awesome" Maria squealed, jumping off the stool she had sat on .She started dancing up and down, singing "Payback-payback-payback" In a singsong voice, suddenly stopping mid-jump when she realized everyone else was staring at her. Abruptly she straightened, brushing her skirt back down in place. "But we shouldn't pick tonight, let's sleep on it, and meet tomorrow." She recapped "Goals must be something we really want to do, but is completely out of character for us, and cannot be told to the Czechs, and each must include all four of us. Operation: Best Summer Ever has just gone into effect."

"Actually, this plan is so simple it will probably work. People just don't make a big deal out of normal stuff, so even if they stopped us and said 'Your acting suspicious, where are you going?' We could say the absolute truth…"Liz's eyes were glowing. Liz loved plans. They were like her candy.

"And they would never believe us" Alex finished. "Hiding in plain sight. We could even insist on it, elaborate, put it to music and sing it to them, but they are so gosh darn suspicious that they'll never believe we aren't covering something worse."

Liz turned to Maria. "But before we go, I think we need to address the Michael issue. It really does require more immediate action…."

"What did you have in mind?" Maria said. She loved Liz. Liz made such wonderful plans…

Michael was fidgeting in the back seat of the car. The ruins had been a total bust, which wasn't surprising, but they had to try. After all, the answers were out there….

But that wasn't why he was so fidgety. The reason sat right there on his wrist, softly glowing. His watch. Or more precisely, the display on his watch which now read 1:15 am. The fifteenth time he changed positions, bumping his knees into Isabel's seat, she finally snapped.

"Michael, what the hell is your problem? Do you need a freaking potty break or something?"

Michael slouched down, scowling.

"Well?" She insisted. Michael did his best to imitate Maria's glare of death, but it must have been a patented Deluca thing, because Isabel only arched one perfect eyebrow.

He sighed. "I missed Maria's show." He said it quietly, but Max's keen ears caught it anyway.

"Michael, she's known for days about this trip, she can't still be mad, it's not like you said you'd be back in time or something dumb like that…" His voice trailed off, his eyes widening in disbelief.

Suddenly, Isabel reached out and smacked him on the top of your head. "You did, you did I can see it in your eyes! How can you be so stupid, do you have a death wish!" She screamed, making Michael flinch.

In the seat beside him, Tess had scooted away from him like he was a pariah, and potentially contagious.

"Just tell me you didn't promise her. Michael, please tell me you didn't PROMISE her!"

"Sorta." He muttered. What was the big deal?

Suddenly Max stepped on the brakes so hard Michael was thrown into the back of Isabel's seat.

"Owww!" He cried, "What was that for?"

"For implicating us in your insanity, Michael!" Max said, his voice a higher octave than normal. "You may have just started the Roswell Civil War. The FBI has nothing on a pissed off Deluca. Christ, now we're _accessories_ to your lying…" He was starting to sweat a little, what Kyle always referred to as Max's "Alien Death Con Four" Mode.

"And missing Maria's show in the first place…" Tess added helpfully.

Max closed his eyes. He looked like he was praying, but he couldn't have been, Max wasn't even religious….

"And breaking a promise to Maria Deluca!" Isabel looked like she had the world's biggest migraine.

"Okay" She said, calming down. "We can fix this. This is fixable, this is fine. We've dealt with gandarium, and dupes, and skins….we are not amateurs." Suddenly, she straightened her shoulders. "Okay, she said. "We just need a plan." She paused. " A good one. Pearls won't work this time…..maybe…emeralds?" She trailed off, looking for Tess for help.

Tess however, had tied her white hanky around her finger and was waving it in the air, shaking her head the whole time. "Switzerland. I am Switzerland. Neutral Territory."

What kind of chic actually still carries a hanky, Michael wondered to himself. Sometimes Tess was just so weird…..suddenly his eyes widened as Isabel's words actually sunk in. "Whoa whoa, hold on a minute, emeralds? Do you know how expensive those are, Isabel, you're crazier than Maria. its fine, okay, I'll go in tomorrow, smooth things over, apologize, it'll all blow over in a day or two…."

"Or forty." Tess's cheerful voice piped in again. "Like that flood in the bible!" Michael shot her a scowl.

Isabel was looking at him with pity. Shaking her head with an expression that was somehow mournful while managing to say 'I told you so!' she sighed.

"Oh, Michael, I'm gonna miss you." She turned around.

"Me too!" Max and Tess chimed in together.

Michael slouched down lower in his seat, staring out into the desert. They were overreacting. Why was he the only calm one? Since when was he, Michael 'I do crazy things' Guerin the only calm of the royal four. Some royalty they were. Obviously, they would cave at the first sign of adversity. He had once been the greatest strategist on Antar, after all. You simply had to have a plan. And Michael had a plan. Or, at least, he PLANNED to have a plan by the time his shift started tomorrow. With Maria. For eight hours. He shook his head a little, a scowled some more. It was gonna be fine. No. Big. Deal…

Michael stood in the alley behind the crashdown, staring at the door that led into the break room of the Crashdown. He wasn't scared. Scared was for wimps. Besides, he, Michael Guerin, had a plan. Sort of.  
>He glanced down at the flowers he had clutched in his hand. Yes, he determined. They really were flowers. The girl at quick stop had assured him that they really were flowers, and not produce (a few months back Michael had discovered he was rather bad at telling the difference. He still denied that it was his fault. Seriously, who knew there was purple vegetable called rhubarb?) and they were even Maria's favorite color, purple. Or, rather, they were now. He thought perhaps they had originally been pink... <p>

Suddenly a breeze burst down the alley; gently lift the locks of Michael's hair away from his head and neck. 

And bent three of the flower stems in right angles. They now leaned over his hand like drunken solders. 

Michael's eyes widened in panic. That wasn't part of the plan. He shot his other hand out; now clutching the semi broken flowers in both hands like a scared bride to be. Now or never. He thought to himself.

Then he looked in some consternation at the door. How the hell was he supposed to get the door open without any free hands? He slowly released one hand from the bouquet, reaching for the handle as smoothly as he could. Almost there... 

This time four flowers flopped over his other hand. And a lone petal fell gracefully to the ground. Michael snapped his free hand back around the bouquet.  
>Shit.<p>

The first time Liz heard the muffled curse from outside in the alley, she merely turned towards Maria and the others, raising her brows she silently mouthed "should I help him?" 

Receiving three identical heads shakes to the negative she shrugged, continuing out to the floor with the new ketchup bottles she had just gotten from the pantry. The morning rush was over and she and Maria were restocking the tables to get ready for the Sunday brunch rush. The after church crowd was always big, and she wanted her section ready. A minute later she pushed back through the door to see Maria shaking with silent laughter as now slightly louder (but still muffled) curses were coming from behind the door. Alex and Kyle were rolling around on the break room couch, clutching each other desperately to maintain their silence. A sudden bang-boom-"shit mother f***!" had all four of them nearly hysterical and Liz knew they had to get it together or they wouldn't be able to pull it off. 

"Out, go!'" she shooed Alex and Kyle out the doors and turned to Maria. 

"Get your game face Maria. We just got to be in control". 

Maria straightened. "I..Am...In control" she managed. Then another thud and curse from outside set Maria off, shoulders shaking silently. From their stools in the diner Liz could hear Alex and Kyle now laughing helplessly and decided drastic action was needed. 

Looking over her should Liz called "I'm opening it!" 

"Liz! Liz, don't!" Maria squeaked.

"Good morning Michael." Liz said smoothly with the brightest, chirpiest smile she could manage.

Her eyes widened at the flowers in Michael's hands. Shit. There went five bucks, she thought. She had been sure the whole rhubarb fiasco had soured Michael on the idea of flowers, at least for a while. She had bet on candy. Maria had guessed parts for the Jetta. Alex had voted for the "no eye-contact bear survival mode thing" Michael and Max tended to use with girls when things got tense. Kyle had stuck with flowers, though. She guessed Kyle knew dumb boy behavior better than most.

Michael didn't spare Liz a second look, marching straight over to Maria, he thrust the flowers in her direction and said "Please don't kick my ass!" 

Well, that came out slightly less manly than he had planned, Michael thought as he finally met Maria's eyes. 

For a second he actually thought he saw pity in her gaze... 

Suddenly her hundred watt smile came on and she said "Michael, that's so sweet, thanks! Did you guys plan this?" 

Plan what? Michael thought in confusion. 

Liz stepped up pertly to the two of them. Spiriting the flowers out of his hands, she turned, calling over her shoulder "Maria, I'll see if we have another vase upstairs? Hmmmkay? Where do you want these?" 

Maria pursed her lips and said "I don't know, is you dad gonna get mad at me?" 

"Nahhh" Liz called down. 

"With the others, I guess than" Maria called. 

Giving Michael a quick peck on the cheek, she said "Thanks spaceboy! Gotta go, I'm up!"  
>She dashed quickly out the door, slipping Kyle a five dollar bill on the way past.<p>

Michael stood there scratching his eyebrow.

Suddenly, something purple caught his attention from the corner of his eye. Slowly spanning the entire room with his eyes, he muttered "What the hell...?


End file.
